Traditional Chinese Medicine

In the whole world, there is nothing more soft and weak than water.
And still, in it’s manner how it affects that what is hard, nothing can be compared to it.
Lao Tse

The healing process of Traditional Chinese Medicine is gentle. Through millenia the doctors of ancient China developed an elaborate understanding of the processs of the human body. By means of careful observation and knowledge passed through generations they accumulated a store of knowledge, still effective today for generating and maintaining health.

The character of this state of health is of ease and and without effort. To obtained it, it is critical to understand the language of the body, to identify it’s needs and to give it what it needs so it can balance itself out by it’s own inate capability and knowledge.

This principle is symbolized through Yin and Yang. It represents the symplest of forms of balance. Everything which exists has polarity, like upside and bottom side, inside and outside, soft and hard. These polarities are spread harmoniously in the symbol of Yin and Yang. At the same time it demonstrates by it’s conjoining design that polarities are changing all the time. What is up comes down, what is down ascends. What is soft contracts and what is hard dissolves eventually. If harmonious, these changes follow a life promoting order.

If this change of polarities happens without harmony however the balance get’s lost. Then the change does not happen any more with ease and additional energy needs to be inserted.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is the Art of bringing back and maintain this innate balance of powers within life and body. While doing this it recognizes relations between different regions of the body surface (Meridians and acupuncture points), inner Organs, body functions, types of tissue, emotions, climatic influences and times of day and year.

These relations are divided in five basic elements, which, alltogether build a harmonious whole, like Yin and Yang.

After analyzing the reported symptoms, reading the pulse and looking at the tongue the TCM-Therapist comes up with a diagnosis. Based on this diagnosis he will build a treatment plan. For treatment there can be used methods like acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal therapy, tui na, cupping and gua sha.

The period for treatments might be very short and consist of few but tightly arranged sessions in acute situations or, in chronical cases or for counseling, through whole phases of lifetime.

In China Traditional Chinese Medicine is used for millenias for all kinds of diseases of the human body. As every old method of treatment which is older than natural sciences TCM is based on a view of the world which came out of experience and interpretation. It’s mode of action may therefore sometimes be not understandable through natural sciences.

During the last two years, there were increased efforts to undertake studies to verify its effectiveness by modern empirical standards. The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a review of these studies.